1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in devices for assisting in hanging frames, pictures, mirrors, and the like, and more particularly to improvements in devices for locating the correct placement of a hanger on a wall or surface to enable such picture or frame to be mounted onto the wall at exactly the desired location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Practically everyone has experienced the difficulty in hanging a photograph, picture, mirror, or other object at a particular location on a wall; in particular, in locating the precise point at which the hanger should be attached or mounted to the wall to result in the object to be mounted hanging at the desired particular location. Commonly, objects to be mounted have a string or wire stretched across its back and are mounted by attaching a hanger, nail, pin, hook, or the like to the hanger location is usually estimated hanger location is usually estimated or guessed at by first holding the object to be mounted at the desired location then estimating the hanger location by guessing at or estimating the stretched location of the wire or string. Then, usually through an iterative process, the hanger is located, and perhaps relocated, until the precise location of the frame has been achieved. Others have taken a more scientific approach by measuring the extension of the string or wire of the object to be mounted in its tensioned state, then locating the object to be mounted at the desired location and measuring a corresponding distance from the ceiling or floor to the frame or object to be mounted. Even so, due to variables in the parts employed, for example, the width of the particular hangers used, the amount of stretch or give in the wire or string under the weight of the object to be mounted, and so on, unpredictable results are frequently experienced.
Several devices have been proposed, to overcome these problems, as can be seen, for example in any one of U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,530,591; 3,516,165; 4,220,309; 4,241,510; 4,382,337 and 4,413,421. None of the devices known, however, are conveniently mountable onto the frame to be carried by it in use, and none produce a tension state in the hanging device (i.e. wire or string) of the frame similar to that encountered when the frame is actually hung. Thus, for instance, many of the devices require juggling type operations in their use, in which the object to be mounted is held in one hand and the hanger locating device in the other A "third" hand is still required to operate a marker of some sort to produce a mark on the wall at the location indicated by the device.